In east England, it was reported here, Southend police are prepared to kick off a pilot program at four schools where officers will urge 13 and 14-year-old girls to report sex offences they may have been subjected to, and also to warn them of the consequences of making false allegations of rape.
The details of the group were revealed in the quarterly report of Essex’s Chief Constable Jim Barker-McCardle:
“The Sexual Safety Awareness Group has been set up to deliver a consistent message to young people regarding sexual safety. The agreed aims of the group include promoting sensible choices and responsible reporting.
"Support services include a referral to teenage pregnancy counsellors for teenagers who are engaging in, or considering engaging in, sexual activity.
“Responsible reporting is about encouraging young people to report acts of sexual violence against them, whilst at the same time explaining the consequences of making false reports to police and other services.”
"Responsibility" in reporting is the key term for this program.
First, there is a responsibility to report rape. Too often, the persons who dominate the public discourse about rape are reluctant to urge young women to report their victimization. Instead of telling young women that they provide an invaluable public service to other would-be victims when they help get a rapist off the streets, they act as if rape is a "different" kind of crime -- that it is too awful, and that its victims are entirely too sensitive -- for this message to be related. Instead of telling young women to report, they insist, for instance, that statutes of limitations for sexual assault be lengthened or eliminated altogether, thus signaling that rape victims shouldn't be expected to report quickly. Treating rape as a "different" kind of crime, loaded with cultural baggage, is contrary to a stated goal of feminists who led the rape revolution. Sadly, that attitude is all too prevalent today.
Second, at long last, young women are to be told the entire rape story; specifically, they will be told that "responsible" reporting includes truthful reporting.
They should be told of the harm to innocent young men from false rape claims, and they should be told that every rape lie diminishes the integrity of every legitimate rape claim.
Police should also include young men in the program. Young men should be taught about about the "regret asymmetry" that separates the genders. Specifically, young people generally do not understand that women experience much greater after-the-fact regret than men do. Sometimes feelings of regret are translated into feelings of "being used," and sometimes feelings of "being used" are misinterpreted or purposefully misconstrued as "rape."
In any event, the Southend police are to be applauded for this very honest attempt to deal with rape.
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12 comments:
Hurray! Finally, some sanity on this issue.
Now we know what we have to do to get accountability for false rape claims here.
Thank you,England, for showing us the way!
Unfortunately, any talk of the consequences of false reporting is laughable -- unless there really are consequences.
And if she sticks to her story, there won't be any.
About time.
On unrelated note, I read this interesting article -> http://www.truecrimereport.com/2011/03/fugitive_watch_suspected_couga.php
Anonymous - ”Unfortunately, any talk of the consequences of false reporting is laughable -- unless there really are consequences.
And if she sticks to her story, there won't be any.”
Although it’s also limited to the UK (for now), having statutes that allow for charging those making FRA’s with felony-level crimes (Perverting The Course Of Justice) has allowed for some “real” punishment of women – a number of whom have been convicted on the solid evidence against them, still contending their innocence despite over-whelming incontrovertible proof that they committed the crime.
Sadly, here in the States, not only do we lack felony statutes which would allow charging FRA crimes more seriously, there is still a very strong “White-Knighting” tendency amongst law enforcement to “protect” woman and girls from the consequences of their own chosen criminal activities. American LE is all too often willing to “sweep it under the rug” and let the women walk away from rape allegation which seem dubious and which cannot be corroborated. Despite all the cases we learn of here, it is unclear how many cases the public is never informed of (so as to protect the liar, if my suspicions are correct).
But, to get back to the story at hand, this is truly a positive development that those in a position to do so are now finding the courage to actually address the “other side” of the rape-hysteria. I’m guessing we will soon hear the braying of the W.A.R. bunch about their brazenness in daring to challenge the SGI memes. But, once the levees begin to be breached, they tend to erode rather quickly. It wasn’t that long ago that papers almost never reported FRA’s that had been discovered. Likewise, police used to be afraid to mention the realities they knew of regarding FRA’s. And, if there was any mention of the harms done by FRA’s, it was almost exclusively about the suspected harm to hypothetical future victims as opposed to the flesh-and-blood men and boys suffering the very real consequences of having been falsely accused.
Great headway has been made in these regards. Now, we can hope that this new approach to teach the harms and consequences of FRA’s to school-age girls can also begin to spread.
thanks for sharing the good news
I am skeptical- if it happens in schools, the feminists will be controlling the whole discussion and emphasizing how "extremely rare" false accusations are and it will be BAU.
"Great headway has been made in these regards."
This is fortunately true. Not to discount all those working for justice on this important issue, but imho, much of this progress is the result of technology overcoming ideology.
For example, yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the Duke lacrosse hoax. If it weren't for unimpeachable physical evidence such as cell phone records, ATM pictures, DNA testing, and so on, her story might never have been proven false.
If it wasn't for us "blog hooligans" on the internet, the truth might never have been exposed. If it was left up to the old media -- such as the New York Times and CNN, who went after them Duke boys like Boss Hogg -- three innocent men might be in prison right now.
-- such as the New York Times and CNN, who went after them Duke boys like Boss Hogg --
***
6:10: I can't remember the last time I was so embarrassed by a comment made by a fellow MRA. You should be ashamed of yourself.
BOSS HOGG WOULD NEVER CHASE ANYBODY HIMSELF -- instead, he was stand there squeezing his fat little fingers, jowels turning red as he screamed, "THEM DUKE BOYS, THEM DUKE BOYS!" Roscoe was the one who actually chased them.
At least your comment has created the pleasant debate inside me as to which set of Duke boys is more awesome! And that is a one tough question.
I wonder when the feminists will descend with all piss and vinegar on this. If they do, I'd just kindly point out how they have no trouble with boys all being reminded/warned of the consequences of rape.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366223/Judge-attacks-drunk-Wren-sailor-accused-rape-cleared.html
Now this is a step toward responsible law enforcement. Enabling the now explosion of false rape accusations will not help the ones that are telling the truth.
"instead, he was stand there squeezing his fat little fingers, jowels turning red as he screamed, "THEM DUKE BOYS, THEM DUKE BOYS!""
Which is what the press did, and often do in response to rape accusations. It's the police and prosecutors who are then expected to do the actual "chasing".
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